1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of electronic communications, and in particular to an apparatus and a method for the use of position information in wireless applications.
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2. Background Art
Electronic communications are routed with the intention that they reach the same physical location of the intended recipient. Some intended recipients are mobile using wireless means of communication. It is difficult to route communications to the physical location of a recipient, especially if the recipient is mobile, without being able to pinpoint the exact physical location of the recipient. Portable communications devices, like personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cellular phones, to name a few, attempt to reduce or eliminate this problem. This problem can be better understood by a review of electronic communications.
Electronic Communications
In electronic communications, one entity attempts to establish a connection to another entity either for the purpose of one-way or two-way data transfers via an electronic connection, or to gather its location information. Common examples of present electronic communications include e-mail messages, computer chat, paging, and phone calls. The success of attempts at electronic communication depends upon routing the communication to the physical location of the recipient. For example, to complete a phone call to a person, that person must be physically present to answer the phone when the phone rings. A more reliable way to electronically detect, track, and control a variety of items is to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.
Mobile users increase the difficulty in correctly routing electronic communication attempts. When a person leaves home, typically, a call placed to the home phone number will fail to reach that person, or conversely a call placed to the cellular phone number will fail to reach that person if the physical location of the cellular phone cannot be pinpointed.
Routing to Mobile Users
One prior art solution involves the use of mobile communications devices. Electronic communications that are routed to a mobile communications device are successfully completed whenever the mobile communications device is with the intended recipient. For example, phone calls, pages and e-mail are routed to a cellular phone which the intended recipient keeps in close proximity. However, the use of such mobile communications devices is expensive. Additionally, mobile communications devices fail to function properly in certain locations.
Another prior art solution involves rerouting electronic communications. A person uses a forwarding device to reroute electronic communications originally sent to one device so that they are instead sent to another device. For example, if a user is going on vacation and will not be able to access messages sent to a primary address, the user configures a program to forward all e-mail messages sent to the primary e-mail address to a secondary e-mail address the user can access while on vacation. In another example, a user leaving home to visit another person's house sets a device to forward calls made to the user's home phone number to the other person's home phone number.
In this method, the user must configure the rerouting mechanism whenever the user changes locations. This is time consuming. Additionally, the user risks mis-configuring the forwarding device. A mis-configuration could lead to electronic communications being lost or routed to unacceptable locations. Furthermore, the rerouting mechanism may not be able to locate the new device to reroute the electronic communications because the new device uses a different kind of communications network, for example wireless or radio frequency, which fails to function properly under certain conditions.
Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology
RFID technology provides a quick, flexible, and reliable way to electronically detect, track, and control a variety of items. Prior art RFID systems use radio transmissions to send energy to a transponder (or RFID tag), which in turn emits a unique identification code back to the data collection reader (or Interrogator) linked to an information management system. These prior art systems utilize two separate antennas—one on the transponder, and one on the reader—to accomplish the task of data transfer by radio signals back to the data management system. The data collected from the transponder can be sent, for example, to a host computer through standard interfaces, or it can be stored in a portable reader and up-loaded later to a computer for data processing.
FIG. 8 illustrates a scenario of a prior art system transferring data using RFID technology. Data collection reader 800 sends an inquiry to locate a RFID tag in the form of an energy wave 810 via antenna 820 built into it. Transponder 830 responds to this energy wave by sending a unique identification code 840 back to reader 800 via antenna 850 built into it. This unique identification code and other similar data transferred between the reader and the transponder is sent via a standard interface 860 to computer 870 for appropriate action.
An RFID transponder is a combination of a radio and data memory on an integrated circuit chip attached to an antenna. Prior art transponders have varying read and write functionality, power sources, and operating frequencies that govern their performance capability. Some of the common prior art transponder functional types include read only (R/O), write once read many (WORM), and read/write (R/W). Common prior art transponder power sources include active and passive transponders, while common prior art transponder operating frequencies include low frequency—operating at 125 kHz, high frequency—operating at 13.56 MHz, and ultra high frequency—operating within the range of 433-915 MHz and 2.45 GHz.
Common examples of RFID systems in use today include toll-way pass systems where a battery operated transponder emits a RF signal directly from a vehicle as it approaches a toll-way gate on a freeway, automatic retail refueling systems, for example the SpeedPass® promoted by a gasoline retailer, and access control systems where a RFID transponder is embedded in an employee personnel ID badge to enable hands-free access to secured buildings and a tamperproof form of identification ensuring that only authorized personnel are admitted.
Accurately gathering and pinpointing location information of both stationary and mobile recipients in this ‘smart everything’ world is an expensive and tedious task. It would be useful if the physical location of a recipient can be accurately pinpointed without altering the basic design or functionality of the recipient or the way this information is gathered and relayed to an end user application.